Bio

Dubbed "especially glorious... ethereal" by Whole Note, and "a highlight of the concert" by the Boston Musical Intelligencer, the music of Canadian composer Tawnie Olson has been performed by a wide range of ensembles and individual musicians, including the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gemini Duo, Duo Fiolûtröniq, the Satie Quartet, the Land's End Ensemble, the Canadian Chamber Choir, the Guelph Chamber Choir, the Yale Camerata and Yale Pro Musica, bassoonist Nadina Mackie Jackson, and harpsichordist Katelyn Clark. She has won awards from the SOCAN foundation and the Guelph Chamber Choir/Musica Viva, and is a two-time semifinalist in the Sorel Foundation competition.

Recent projects include La Folia, a new work for harpsichord commissioned by Katelyn Clark with assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts, Urban Legend, commissioned by ACES Educational Center for the Arts for the ECA Chamber Orchestra, As Rain Hollows Stone, written for the Wanmu Percussion Trio, Mille Regretz, commissioned by Duo Fiolûtröniq, and Le Revenant, commissioned by Stacie Dunlop. In May 2010 a recording of her composition Chantez à l'Éternel was released on the Canadian Chamber Choir's debut album, "In Good Company," and this fall Rachael Elliott released a recording of À mon seul désir on the album "Polka the Elk."

Olson holds a doctorate in music composition from the University of Toronto, a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music, an Artist Diploma from the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Calgary. In Spring 2011 she was visiting assistant professor of composition at the Hartt School of Music.